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Chinese ocean passenger service disrupted

About 13,000 fishing boats in Yantai stranded after gale-force winds sweep through sea.

28 May 2013 13:54 GMT

Gale force winds led to the suspension of ocean passenger services between the eastern Chinese city of Yantai in Shandong Province and the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian in Liaoning Province on Monday morning.

About 13,000 fishing boats in Yantai were stranded at the port, according to local maritime authorities.

Weather forecasters from the Shandong Provincial Meteorological Observatory said that winds at sea near Yantai exceeded 75 kilometres per hour on Monday morning.

Gale force winds and heavy rain also swept across the city of Weihai in Shandong Province starting on Sunday evening, uprooting roadside trees and disrupting traffic throughout the city.

There was also heavy rain across the Korean Peninsula which resulted in flooding. The rain is now in the proccess of moving east and is expected across Japan on Wednesday and Thursday.

The unsettled weather spread across much of northeastern Asia on Tuesday. Another deep area of low pressure is now making its way across the East China Sea toward the western Sea of Japan. Strong winds wrapping around the system drew ample moisture from the south up ahead of the low, maintaining wide swaths of heavy rain across the Korean Peninsula throughout much of the day.

Severe thunderstorms are likely as this system progresses into the Sea of Japan. THe heaviest rain will gradually shift towards the southern half of Japan with the worst of the weather making its way across Shikoku, Kyushu, and southern Honshu.